December 2000 - cypherpunks-legacy

Important Membership Information
by announce＠inbox.nytimes.com 25 Dec '00

25 Dec '00

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PC USERS OPTIMIZE WINDOWS
by info6＠quickstockpower.com 24 Dec '00

24 Dec '00

Dear Windows User, Now you can boost the reliability of ordinary Windows 3.x, 95 and 98 to nearly the level of Windows NT or 2000, Microsoft's professional and industrial version of Windows. The new WinFix 4.3 is a very effective way to improve the reliability of Windows, because it makes Windows fault-tolerant and self-repairing. And WinFix is very safe, because it operates completely independent of Windows. http://www3.quickstockpower.com/comph to find out more about WinFix, the safest, most effective way to keep you working, by keeping your PC working non-stop. Arlen Dixon, CEO Westwood Software Marketing * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * This announcement is being sent to PC users who asked to be kept informed about new developments in Windows(tm) technology. To be removed from our mailing list, go to the Email-us page OR To be removed mailto:remove@www3.quickstockpower.com?Subject=REMOVE

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Naughty Santa
by Reese 24 Dec '00

24 Dec '00

Night Before Sexmas Twas the night before Christmas, and God it was neat, The kids were both gone, and my wife was in heat. The doors were all bolted, the phone off the hook, It was time for some nooky, by hook or by crook. Momma in her teddy, and I in the nude, Had just hit the bedroom and reached for the lube. When out on the lawn there arose such a cry, That I lost my boner and poor momma went dry. Up to the window I sprang like an elf, Tore back the shade while she played with herself. The moon on the crest of the snowman we'd built, Showed a broom up his ass, clean up to the hilt. When what to my wondering eyes should appear, But a rusty old sleigh and eight mangy reindeer. With a fat little driver half out of his sled, A sock in his ear, and a bra on his head. Sure as I'm speaking, he was as high as a kite, And he yelled to his team, but it didn't sound right. Whoa Shithead, whoa Asshole, whoa Stupid, whoa Putz, Either slow down this rig or I'll cut off your nuts. Look out for the lamp post, and don't hit the tree, Quit shaking the sleigh, 'cause I gotta go pee. They cleared the old lamp post, the tree got a rub, Just as Santa leaned out and threw up on my shrub. And then from the roof we heard such a clatter, As each little reindeer now emptied his bladder. I was donning my jacket to cover my ass, When down the chimney Santa came with a crash. His suit was all smelly with perfume galore, He looked like a bum and he smelled like a whore. "That was some brothel," he said with a smile, "The reindeer are pooped, and I'll just stay here awhile." He walked to the kitchen, himself poured a drink, Then whipped out his pecker and pissed in the sink. I started to laugh, my wife smiled with glee, The old boy was hung nearly down to his knee. Back in the den, Santa reached in his sack, But his toys were all gone, and some new things were packed. The first thing he found was a pair of false tits, The next was a handgun with a penis that spits. A box filled with condoms was Santa's next find, And a six pack of panties, the edible kind. A bra without nipples, a penis extension, And several other things that I shouldn't even mention. A fuck ring, a G-string, and all types of oil, A dildo so long, it lay in a coil. "This stuff ain't for kids, Mrs. Santa will shit. So I'll leave 'em here, and then I'll just split." He filled every stocking and then took his leave, With one tiny butt plug tucked under his sleeve. He sprang to his sleigh, but his feet were like lead, Thus he fell on his ass and broke wind instead. In time he was seated, took the reigns of his hitch, Saying, "Take me home Rudolph, this nights been a BITCH!" The sleigh was near gone when we heard Santa shout, "The best thing about sex is that it never wears out!"

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keystroke recorders
by Mr.D 24 Dec '00

24 Dec '00

Is there a program available to detect hidden software and remove software that is sending screenshots or keystrokes to an unknown address from my computer? I currently use Spycop and have Norton AV installed. I have detected some suspicious activity on my computers and am tired of reloading my OS. Thank you in advance, Dave.

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Gas the niggers
by Myke 24 Dec '00

24 Dec '00

That's right, all North American shitskin niggers should be gassed to death!

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Digital Economy Jargon Generator
by Tim May 24 Dec '00

24 Dec '00

With all of the talk recently of recursively-settled agoric market spaces, multidimensional geodesic actor systems, and other jargon-heavy marketbuzz, I've made up a little table of recommended names. Someone could make a little Perl or Python script to let the computers do all the work. The idea is to take a couple of sexy terms from Columns 1 and 2 and apply them to a noun from Column 3. Care should be taken to use terms which evoke images from relativity, quantum mechanics, artificial life, and other trendy areas. Anything that triggers images from "Star Trek" is good. Here it goes: Column 1 Column 2 Column 3 Distributed Fractal Market Geodesic Coaseian Ecosystem Holographic Geodesic Space Multiply-connected Biometric Ecology Least Action Parameterized Continuum Recursively-settled Holographic Cyberspace Fractal Multidimensional Bazaar Bionomic Distributed Hyperspace Agoric Auction Topology Best of breed Metric Metaverse Dark Fiber Anarchic Arena Open-system Quantized Manifold Anarcho-topological Hayekian Actor system Examples of usage: "Digital Datawhack is premised on the principle of creating distributed biometric agoric arenas." "The Von Mises Corporation is the dominant player in deploying recursively-settled holographic actor systems. It is our goal to make agoric, open-system market topologies the bionomic norm." "Fractalbucks are the unit of currency in the Hayekworld bazaar-type open Coaseian system. We believe it to be best of breed in the dark fiber geodesic market space." Glad to be of help. --Tim May, Aptical Foddering Marketspace V.P. -- (This .sig file has not been significantly changed since 1992. As the election debacle unfolds, it is time to prepare a new one. Stay tuned.)

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Crypto on cable...chuck the vce?
by Jim Choate 24 Dec '00

24 Dec '00

http://theregister.co.uk ____________________________________________________________________ Before a larger group can see the virtue of an idea, a smaller group must first understand it. "Stranger Suns" George Zebrowski The Armadillo Group ,::////;::-. James Choate Austin, Tx /:'///// ``::>/|/ ravage(a)ssz.com www.ssz.com .', |||| `/( e\ 512-451-7087 -====~~mm-'`-```-mm --'- --------------------------------------------------------------------

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have we had any "cyber-terrorist" attacks in the U.S.?
by dmolnar 23 Dec '00

23 Dec '00

I can think of two terrorist attacks on U.S. soil without too much difficulty: the World Trade Center and Oklahoma City. In both cases, computers and "internet" loosely defined played a minor organizational role. McVeigh used AOL, and the Trade Center bombers had some plans on a floppy disk. Have we had any instance of "cyber terrorism" -- you know, the kind of awful scenario which most people reading this could cook up without too much difficulty. or is the question not well formed since if it was a successful attack, we wouldn't know? -David

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Re: china-taiwan and limits of state action
by Alex Shirado 23 Dec '00

23 Dec '00

David, You have a simple view of China-Taiwan relations, but you are more of a computer specialist than an Asia one, so your deficiency is quite forgivable. I recently heard a story about policeman in Taiwan who is close to retiring. When he was asked what he planned to do when he retires, he said that he wanted to go back to the Mainland. To the outsider, this would seem strange, but it would be hard to believe that Taiwan and China do not have a workable and effective MO. Someone who responded to your post stated that it is far more likely that China would be the aggressor in a cross-strait spat. Now, where the Taiwan-China working MO might break down would be when individuals act. In a way, hacking is the attack of the powerless: it allows geeks like us to launch an assault when we cannot afford tactical weapons. So it is wrong to think that angry Taiwanese would hesitate from waving the red in front of the bull. As you state, there is no cyberterror treaty governing how information regarding attacks is treated. Many of us take for granted that other informal arrangements govern how this information is treated. The questions you ask are valid. Indeed, they are some of the reasons why this listserve exists. You are asking core questions as to how we should treat state activity and personal responsibility. When you find the answers, let me know ; ) > > What happens if Taiwan's government says it wants to normalize relations > with China (and vice versa), but the attacks continue? Will they have to > find and punish their own citizens in order for the normalization to move > forward? Where do treaty obligations compel a state to prosecute citizens > for behavior which it may have tacitly encouraged before? > > Interestingly enough, an attack where the originator is identified seems > to be more of a problem. At least with an anonymous attack, a state can > plausibly deny that one of its citizens was involved. In fact, you could > see identified attacks on Chinese systems coming to be a form of civil > disobedience if Taiwan were to go this route. > > (I don't think Taiwan will - I'm just interested in this interplay between > private action and the state's responsibility.) > > Suppose Taiwan proves unwilling or unable to stop private citizens from > attacking mainland Chinese systems. Now there seems to be a parallel with > situations where states are considered either supportive of terrorism or > too incompetent to prevent terrorist activity. Israel occupied southern > Lebanon because it didn't see any other way to prevent terrorist activity. > The alleged use of Libya and Sudan as "training grounds" could be viewed > as a kind of jurisdictional arbitrage, and a kind which has been reacted > against violently in the past. Fear of an analogous situation online seems > to be behind the "world cyber-crime treaty" mentioned here recently. > > Now bringing it closer to home, does that mean opposition to the world > cyber crime treaty could be cast as "support for cyber-terrorism"? > > -David > >

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Device could lead to hack-proof data
by Anonymous 23 Dec '00

23 Dec '00

By Dan Vergano, USA TODAY Scientists have unveiled a miniature device that emits light particles, or photons, one at a time, an accomplishment which could pave the way for impregnable coded messages and electronic commerce in coming decades. In theory, such a single light particle offers benefits to people hoping to create secure communications, including bankers in need of secure pathways for transactions or governments relaying secret diplomatic documents. Writing in Friday's Science, researchers note that such fundamental particles cannot be examined without altering their physical characteristics, part of the physics theory known as quantum mechanics. To create an unbreakable code, physicists plan to send a stream of single photons imprinted with the key to a later coded message. If transmitted via fiber-optic cable, a third party could not intercept the particles without scrambling the key. Alerted to the transgression, the target of the eavesdropping would halt transmission of the coded message. ''I think this work represents a very nice advance towards that goal,'' says David Peter DiVincenzo, an encryption expert at IBM's T.J. Watson Research Center in Yorktown Heights, N.Y. But a number of technological hurdles need to be overcome before so-called ''quantum cryptography'' becomes a reality, he cautions. To create a photon ''turnstile,'' a University of California-Santa Barbara research team placed ''quantum dots'' Q crystals containing confined groups of negative- and positive-charged atoms Q onto a mushroom-shaped semiconductor. When pulsed with a laser, the structure releases a single photon, the team reports in Science. Even lasers, which represent the best control of light emission today, release tens of thousands of photons at once, whereas control of single photons has long been a scientific goal. ''Really, it's about the ultimate control of light,'' DiVincenzo says. At least four other teams are pursuing single-photon devices, he adds. In September, for example, Stanford University researchers reported a way to produce single photons that is 84% efficient. Now, ''we can produce a photon every time, so the efficiency is 100%,'' says scientist Pierre Petroff of UC-Santa Barbara, a member of the device team led by his colleague Atac Imamoglu. In the next year, the photon turnstile team hopes to raise the temperature at which their device functions above its current limit of minus-321 degrees Fahrenheit. They hope to produce the effect at room temperatures. Support for development of the photon turnstile came from the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, a Defense Department agency charged with advancing information technology.

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